This invention relates to the lowering of blood cholesterol levels in mammals by administering a cholesterol lowering effective amount of interleukin-4 (IL-4).
Interleukin-4 (IL-4) is a lymphokine (stimulator of the immune system) that has a broad range of immune cell stimulation as described in Banchereau et al., Lymphokine Res. Vol. 6, No. 1: U135 (1987); Yokoto et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 83: 5894-5898 (1986); Lee at al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 83: 2061-2065 (1986); Coffman et al., J. Immunol. 136: 949-954 (1986); Sanderson et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 83: 437-440 (1986); Grabstein et al., J. Exp. Med., 163: 1405-1413 (1985); and Vitetta et al., J. Exp. Med. 162: 1726-1731 (1985). During its early development IL-4 has also been referred to as B-cell growth factor (BCGF) [Butler et al., J. Immunol. 133: 251-255 (1984)(human BCGF); and Farrar et al., J. Immunol. 131: 1838-1842 (1983)(mouse BCGF)] and B-cell stimulatory factor 1 (BSF-1) [Ohara et al., J. Immunol. 135: 2518-2523 (1985)]. The clarification and designation of the name interleukin-4 was finally proposed and adopted in 1986 [Sanderson et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 83: 437-440 (1986)].